Stars we can all look up to.

Who's the best boy with a key grip and the guts of a python wrangler? Look no further than Andy "Hollywood Joon Hyung" Choi.

Why are we in such a cinematic frame of mind? On today’s live episode of Up To Speed, Andy and special guest Chief Marketing Officer Diego Scotti prepared for one of the biggest nights of the year for Tinseltown and Verizon.

But before Andy hit the red carpet, he took a moment to look back at a very busy week on Up to Speed:

• Monday: We aired a conversation with members of our Treasury team, along with a few of our external partners in the capital markets, to talk about how Verizon is helping to create new opportunities for diverse representation on Wall Street and beyond.
• Tuesday: A double dose of 5G news, including our 5G Home Internet expansion and free Chromebook offer, as well as a 5G Ultra Wideband announcement. Those blazing fast mobility speeds are coming to parts of New Orleans; Fresno, CA; Riverside, CA; and San Antonio.
• Wednesday: Our 1Q21 Earnings Webcast looked back at just how we delivered for our customers, how we continue to grow and of course we recognized our latest Credo Award winner, Field Technician Nick Gesa of Bohemia, NY. Congratulations, Nick!
• Thursday: We celebrated Earth Day by talking about all the things we’re doing to help our planet, including our commitment to dramatically reduce our operational emissions and plant 20 million trees by 2030. It’s not easy being green, but no doubt the V Team is making it happen!

Hollywood’s big night

Andy received a friendly reminder from Diego that a certain major awards show is coming up this weekend. In an instant, Andy magically appeared in a James Bond-worthy tuxedo and hit the red carpet, or at least Up To Speed’s micro-budget version of said carpet.

Diego shared a preview of our ads that will air Sunday evening. He also shared the strategy behind them. “You can argue that the reliability of our network has never been more important than ever before due to the pandemic,” Diego said. The power of these spots comes from the fact that these are real-life stories of actual Verizon customers doing extraordinary things during extremely tough times thanks to the reliability of our networks.

Meeting the stars

Andy caught up with two of the Verizon customers featured in the ads. Shandiin Herrara, who shared how reliable access to the internet helped raise money for at-risk members of her Navajo Nation community in Monument Valley, UT.

Andy also spoke with another featured customer, Ethan Lybrand, this year’s National Ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and his parents, Josh and Jordan. “When I found out I would get to go to LA to shoot a commercial for Verizon, I was so excited,” said Ethan. “I had so much fun. Thank you so much for letting us share our story.” Andy was even able to get Ethan to share one of his jokes: “What did the magician say to the fisherman? Pick a cod, any cod!”

Behind-the-scenes access

Verizon customers will have the opportunity to enjoy our Verizon 5G Portal Experience, which will give 5G-enabled experiential access to locations backstage that TV cameras typically don’t go. That includes the engraving room, where workers quickly engrave statues after winners are announced.

You can check out all seven - yes, seven - of our spots here.

New Apple products

In case you missed it, this week Apple unveiled lots of great new tech, including two new iPad Pros with 5G, the iPhone 12s in purple, the Apple AirTag and a new Apple TV 4K. The great news is that all of those products will be coming to Verizon in the next few weeks, starting with those AirTags and purple iPhones, with pre-orders starting today.

National Volunteer Week

We’re going to end the week the same way we started it, with a reminder about National Volunteer Week. Let’s take a moment and reflect on all the good that we've done so far.

Since we started our volunteer portal, 83,000 V Teamers have logged more than 650,000 volunteer hours. That means we are more than a quarter of the way towards our goal of 2.5 million volunteer hours by 2025.

And through our V Team’s volunteer work, the Be My Eyes App helped support 2,000 visually-impaired people, we supported people in crisis with 9,000 conversations through the Crisis Text Line, and with our partners at the American River organization, we collected more than 3,000 pounds of litter. Great job, team!

Here’s the kicker: Research shows that people who regularly volunteer show higher levels of happiness in their daily lives, higher self esteem and better physical health. Combine that with all that is being done for the community, and it’s clear that volunteering is a win-win for everyone. So let’s keep the good mojo going this weekend and beyond.

We hope you enjoy an award-winning weekend.

If you have any questions, email them to live@verizon.com.

Click here for a transcript of the webcast.

Get the latest information on our Coronavirus Resource Page (Inside Verizon, The Street).

Tell us what you think of Up To Speed.

​​V Team, go to VZWeb to join the conversation